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Microsoft warned its customers yesterday that several of the company's products are vulnerable to a flaw in the way that they handle JPEG images. Microsoft has issued a patch for the flaw, which it describes as critical because attackers can potentially use JPEG images to run malicious code on users' machines.

Don't wait to install this one, folks. Although no known hacks take advantage of the flaw, security researchers say you can be compromised simply by visiting a Web site or opening an email message that contains a maliciously constructed image. Microsoft advises users of any of the above products to download the patch immediately; different versions of the patch are available for the various software types. You can find these patches on the Microsoft Web site.

http://www.microsoft.com/security/bulletins/200409_jpeg.mspx

Novell Comes Out Swinging Against Microsoft

At the Novell BrainShare Europe 2004 conference in Barcelona, Spain, Novell Chairman of the Board and CEO Jack Messman talked up Linux and renewed his company's attack on rival Microsoft. Novell acquired two major Linux firms in the past year--SUSE LINUX and Ximian--and is in the process of combining technology from the two to create a new Linux desktop environment.

"Microsoft took away a lot of our new licensing over the years, and we learned to live on maintenance," Messman said. "Now the revenue generator around Linux is maintenance. The remarkable potential for Linux has become obvious to anyone who's paying attention. There are very few customers who are not doing something on Linux." Novell Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer Alan F. Nugent added, "We're not abandoning Windows from a product perspective but we think the market will abandon Windows at some point. We will maintain our commitment to the Windows desktop for as long as our customers want us to."

Novell executives had more to say about Microsoft. "I'm of the opinion that innovation has been slowed in our industry because of the market position of Microsoft, which has sucked $60 billion from the market that could have been spent on innovation," Messman said. But Messman's most interesting comments regarded Microsoft's recent decision to strip the WinFS feature from Longhorn. "They wanted to cut us off," he said. "The more time we have to sell against Longhorn, the worse it is for them." Thus, Messman says, Microsoft will ship Longhorn early to prevent Linux from catching up to Windows.

Yahoo! to Buy Musicmatch for $160 Million

In a bid to compete with Apple Computer and Microsoft in the online music services market, online giant Yahoo! announced yesterday that it will purchase Musicmatch for $160 million. Musicmatch makes a popular media player for Windows and operates two music-related online services--a subscription-based online radio service that has 225,000 users and an online music store that offers more than 700,000 tracks for sale.

"Yahoo! is committed to being a major player in digital music," Yahoo! Chairman and CEO Terry Semel said. "This combination bolsters our strategy to capture the largest audience of consumers as they make the shift to digital music and supports Yahoo!'s goal to give consumers the greatest choice, control, and flexibility in how they interact with their music. This acquisition is one of several product innovations and new initiatives in which Yahoo! will invest to build our music portfolio this year and in the future."

Yahoo! says that the acquisition will help improve its music reach from 12.9 million users to an estimated 23 million users, making the company an even more impressive partner for advertisers and record companies. Previously, Yahoo! marketed a music destination called LAUNCH, which offered radio services.

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New Windows Flaw Targets JPEG Images Microsoft warned its customers yesterday that several of the company's products are vulnerable to a flaw in the way that they handle JPEG images. Microsoft has issued a patch for the flaw, which it describes as critical because attackers can potentially use JPEG images to run malicious code on users' machines. "The GDI+ security update for September 2004 addresses newly discovered issues in JPEG processing technology," the Microsoft security bulletin says. "This issue affects software that supports this image format, including some versions of Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office, and Microsoft developer tools. If you have any of the listed software installed on your computer, you should install the related update." Affected software includes Windows Server 2003; Windows XP; XP Service Pack 1 (SP1); Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) 6.0 SP1; Office 2003; Office XP SP3; Microsoft Digital Image Pro 9 and 7.0; Microsoft Digital Image Suite 9; Microsoft Greetings 2002; Microsoft Picture It 2002, 9, and 7.0; Microsoft Producer for Microsoft Office PowerPoint (all versions); Microsoft Office Project 2003; Project 2002 SP1; Microsoft Office Visio 2003; Visio 2002 SP2; Visual Studio .NET 2003; Visual Studio .NET 2002; Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1; .NET Framework 1.0 SP2 and software development kit (SDK); and Platform SDK Redistributable: GDI+. Don't wait to install this one, folks. Although no known hacks take advantage of the flaw, security researchers say you can be compromised simply by visiting a Web site or opening an email message that contains a maliciously constructed image. Microsoft advises users of any of the above products to download the patch immediately; different versions of the patch are available for the various software types. You can find these patches on the Microsoft Web site. http://www.microsoft.com/security/bulletins/200409_jpeg.mspx

Novell Comes Out Swinging Against Microsoft At the Novell BrainShare Europe 2004 conference in Barcelona, Spain, Novell Chairman of the Board and CEO Jack Messman talked up Linux and renewed his company's attack on rival Microsoft. Novell acquired two major Linux firms in the past year--SUSE LINUX and Ximian--and is in the process of combining technology from the two to create a new Linux desktop environment. "Microsoft took away a lot of our new licensing over the years, and we learned to live on maintenance," Messman said. "Now the revenue generator around Linux is maintenance. The remarkable potential for Linux has become obvious to anyone who's paying attention. There are very few customers who are not doing something on Linux." Novell Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer Alan F. Nugent added, "We're not abandoning Windows from a product perspective but we think the market will abandon Windows at some point. We will maintain our commitment to the Windows desktop for as long as our customers want us to." Novell executives had more to say about Microsoft. "I'm of the opinion that innovation has been slowed in our industry because of the market position of Microsoft, which has sucked $60 billion from the market that could have been spent on innovation," Messman said. But Messman's most interesting comments regarded Microsoft's recent decision to strip the WinFS feature from Longhorn. "They wanted to cut us off," he said. "The more time we have to sell against Longhorn, the worse it is for them." Thus, Messman says, Microsoft will ship Longhorn early to prevent Linux from catching up to Windows.

Yahoo! to Buy Musicmatch for $160 Million In a bid to compete with Apple Computer and Microsoft in the online music services market, online giant Yahoo! announced yesterday that it will purchase Musicmatch for $160 million. Musicmatch makes a popular media player for Windows and operates two music-related online services--a subscription-based online radio service that has 225,000 users and an online music store that offers more than 700,000 tracks for sale. "Yahoo! is committed to being a major player in digital music," Yahoo! Chairman and CEO Terry Semel said. "This combination bolsters our strategy to capture the largest audience of consumers as they make the shift to digital music and supports Yahoo!'s goal to give consumers the greatest choice, control, and flexibility in how they interact with their music. This acquisition is one of several product innovations and new initiatives in which Yahoo! will invest to build our music portfolio this year and in the future." Yahoo! says that the acquisition will help improve its music reach from 12.9 million users to an estimated 23 million users, making the company an even more impressive partner for advertisers and record companies. Previously, Yahoo! marketed a music destination called LAUNCH, which offered radio services.

==== Announcement ==== (from Windows IT Pro and its partners)

Get the Charter Issue of Windows IT Pro! Windows & .NET Magazine is now Windows IT Pro! Act now to get our special charter issue rate of just $39.95--that's 52 percent off the cover price! The September issue shows you how to plug DNS holes and select the best scripting editor, plus learn more about the business side of IT. And discover the top 10 PC trends we think you need to keep an eye on. This is a limited-time offer, so order today! http://www.winnetmag.com/rd.cfm?code=thep204jul